


1^:10 



CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHIES 



TWO AMHERST DICKINSONS 

REV. AUSTIN DICKINSON, A.M. 
REV. BAXTER DICKINSON, D.D. 

By 
Austin Baxter Keep 



C 



[Reprinted from The Amherst Graduates Quarterly, No. 35, May, 1920.] 



0if6 
Author 



PVith the compliments of 

Austin Baxter Keep 

^ Livingston Hall / 

Columbia University 

City of New York 



CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHIES: TWO AMHERST 
DICKINSONS 

AUSTIN BAXTER KEEP 
REV. AUSTIN DICKINSON, A.M. 

** T" F some future generation should ever conceive the idea of 

I erecting a statue to commemorate the founder of Amherst 
College, the man most deserving the honor would be the 
Rev. Austin Dickinson." So wrote in 1871 the Rev. Jacob Abbott, 
father of the Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, author of the once famous 
"Rollo" books, and a professor at Amherst in its early years, 
when called upon for his recollections of the institution when 
struggling for very existence in the most critical period of its 
history. 

A partial explanation of any seeming neglect by the college 
authorities toward the memory and services of this forgotten — or, 
more exactly, little known — benefactor appears in the same letter 
as follows: "He had, however, no formal connection of any kind 
with the CoUege, and so quiet and unostentatious was his action 
in all these proceedings, and so entirely was his interest in the 
work confined to a desire to have it accompHshed, without any 
wish to secure to himself the honor or the consideration due to the 
one who was the means of accomplishing it, that I am not surprised 
to learn that his name does not appear upon the college records 
of those days." 

The "proceedings" above referred to were, so the same source 
tells us, '* all action of a legal or pohtical character connected with 
the efforts to obtain a charter for the College." But before 
recounting the truly remarkable series of events that culminated 
in success under the influence of an unpretentious young clergyman, 
it were well to outline briefly his early life and circumstances. 

Austin Dickinson was born in Amherst, February 15, 1791, in 
a house still standing on the easterly road in the northern part of 
the town, second of the four sons of Azariah and Mary Eastman 
Dickinson. Of a meditative temperament and trained in a home 
atmosphere of intelligence and piety, he early planned to become 



2 AmherstGraduates' Quarterly 

a minister. His collegiate course was taken at Dartmouth, where 
he was graduated in 1813. Despite a frail constitution and fre- 
quent suffering from eye-strain, he maintained "a prominent 
place among the best scholars of his class." This from his room- 
mate, who added: ''There was no branch of study to which he 
was not fully adequate, but he excelled in languages and composi- 
tion. He was a deep thinker and a strong original writer." 

After graduation he read law for a while in an Amherst office 
and then spent several months in horseback travel for his health. 
After a course of study at Princeton Theological Seminary he was 
licensed to preach, but felt physically unable to accept a stated 
charge. Again he set forth on horseback, journeying toward 
the south, preaching by the way, and visiting colleges and semi- 
naries without regard to denomination. "The great aim of his 
life," said one who knew him well, "was the elevation and salvation 
of humanity and the honor of his Divine Master"; and he con- 
cerned himself but little with sectarianism. 

From his journal it appears that on this pilgrimage he declined 
several calls to a settled pastorate, but assisted in establishing 
schools, missionary societies and Bible and tract distributing 
centers, and in securing subscriptions to religious periodicals, of 
which there were then but few. 

As evidence of his astonishing powers of organization, as well as 
his breadth of vision, it should be told how he raised by personal 
solicitation within less than nine months the sum of $35,000 to 
found a theological seminary in eastern Tennessee. On this 
mission he rode through six adjoining states, bearing a letter of 
endorsement from General Jackson, later President, himself a 
generous contributor to the enterprise. Besides this he set in 
operation in Richmond a non-sectarian religious newspaper, The 
Family Visitor, the first of its kind south of Mason and Dixon's line. 

Upon his return to Amherst, in June, 1822, he found another 
field of effort awaiting him. The "Collegiate Institution" had 
only just been started with the primal purpose of aiding indigent 
young men in preparation for the Christian ministry. There was 
immediate need of a fund of $30,000 to insure its continuance, and 
to Mr. Dickinson the call to assist in this enterprise of enlightened 
piety proved irresistible. In the library of President Moore he 
drew up a subscription paper, and with the assistance of his 



Centennial Biographies 8 

brother, the Rev. Baxter Dickinson, and others he soon raised one 
tenth of the sum in and around Amherst. The remainder he took a 
leading part in obtaining from outside sources within a year. 

From the very beginning he had been deeply interested in the 
movement to establish a college in his native town ; and his efforts to 
induce the acceptance of its presidency by Dr. Moore, then 
president of Williams College, in whose family he had lived when a 
student at Dartmouth, are attested in these personal words from 
Mrs. Moore: ''If it had not been for your influence with my 
husband, we never should have been in Amherst." 

And now a new and formidable task presented itself, namely, 
to secure for the College a charter in the face of an organized, 
virtually state-wide opposition, due chiefly to the evangelical 
character of the institution. First President Moore and Mr. 
Dickinson consulted their distinguished fellow-alumnus, th^ Hon. 
Daniel Webster, who had not long before made his memorable 
and successful plea in behalf of Dartmouth College against a hostile 
legislature, and were greatly heartened by his assurances that their 
cause was not only worthy but eminently just. Similar approval 
came from other prominent men. 

At that time the leaders of the Federalist party, then in power, 
were openly opposed to the College and its appeal for a charter. 
As the state election approached, they nominated for governor 
Harrison Gray Otis, a wealthy Bostonian, while their opponents 
(then called Republicans) put up William T. Eustis, of Roxbury, 
their unsuccessful nominee of the year before. By personal 
inquiry Mr. Dickinson ascertained that Mr. Eustis, if elected, 
would favor the charter. He thereupon conceived the design of 
influencing numbers of Federalists to change their vote to the other 
party and actively set about its accomplishment by personal 
visits to men in all walks of life, ministers, professors, business men, 
and farmers, besides writing hundreds of letters and issuing appeals 
in the current press. The result was truly dramatic, as Mr. 
Eustis was elected by a decisive majority. 

This was, however, but the beginning; a renewed application 
for the charter, though favorably reported by a joint committee of 
the legislature, was deferred for consideration till the next session. 
Hard upon this disappointment came a tragic set-back in the sud- 
den death of President Moore. One incident will serve to reveal 



4 Amherst Graduates' Quarterly 

the hostility manifested toward the College. An Andover profes- 
sor in a conversation asking, "Can they get a successor?" was met 
with the harsh rejoinder from another eminent theologian, "The 
question is whether they ought to have a successor." 

Here again the services of Mr. Dickinson were invoked, and he 
was entrusted by the authorities with the important and delicate 
mission of persuading the man of their choice, the Rev. Dr. Heman 
Humphrey, pastor of a large and united congregation in Pittsfield, 
to leave that advantageous station to become the head of a strug- 
gling young college, whose efforts to gain legal standing were at 
that very time vigorously resisted. 

Once more success crowned his labors, and the acceptance of 
the office by Dr. Humphrey, no less than his able inaugural address, 
gained the College strong reenforcements. Nevertheless, despite 
all this and further personal efforts, the bill to grant the charter 
failed to pass early in 1824. Then came the reelection of Mr. 
Eustis as governor, and a new bill was introduced in May. This 
time the opposition, not feeling itseff strong enough to risk a vote, 
secured the appointment of a joint committee to investigate actual 
conditions at Amherst. 

In preparation for this visitation Mr. Dickinson was, if possible, 
more tireless than before, advising Trustees and Faculty and again 
faring forth with a subscription paper, this time for $15,000, and 
again meeting with success. The committee spent a fortnight in a 
minute inspection of the whole situation and reported favorably; 
whereupon, though only after another prolonged and heated dis- 
cussion, the legislature voted to grant the charter, in February, 
1825. 

In that same month Mr. Dickinson completed his thirty-fourth 
year. Says the Rev. Jacob Abbott again: "I think it was 
generally understood at Amherst, while the question of its legal 
establishment was pending, that he was the main and, indeed, 
almost the sole reliance of its friends for all the plans formed and 
the measures adopted to promote success." And from President 
Humphrey comes this further word: "Mr. Dickinson brought 
influences to bear upon the public mind which few men could have 
wielded with such skill and success, and for which the College is 
more indebted for its estabhshment and prosperity than one in a 
hundred of its present friends is or ever will be aware of." 



Centennial Biographies 



Furthermore, as if that were not enough, Mr. Dickinson had for 
over a year of this time of strain and stress been "supplying" 
the pulpit of the First Congregational Church in Amherst (the 
present College Hall), and, in the words of Professor Abbott, 
who extolled his imagery and diction, "these services were looked 
forward to with great anticipation by the officers and students 
of the College and by the cultivated portion of the community." 
Another former member of the Faculty, the Rev. Solomon Peck, 
declared that "his power to move others was conspicuous in pubhc 
address scarcely less than in private intercourse." 

From Professor Abbott we have this as to his character: 
"I remember Mr. Dickinson as the most grave and austere man 
I ever knew, with no thought and no word of interest for anything 
light or trifling, but wholly engrossed at all times in his deep-laid 
plans and schemes for the advancement of the College." Professor 
Peck wrote long afterward of his personal appearance : "He was a 
man to make lasting impressions. His features and their habitual 
expression, sedate, earnest, sometimes bordering on sadness, but 
occasionally brightening into a smile; his dehberate, measured 
gait, with brow inchned, as if weighed down with momentous 
aims and plans; the directness but kindness of his appeals; and 
his prolific inventiveness, ever devising new methods of influencing 
the general mind for good, — all stand out before me at this hour as 
if I had seen him but yesterday." 

Although here ends the story of his connection with Amherst 
College, it will not be amiss to review briefly his subsequent 
career, which was in keeping with the nature of his earher activ- 
ities. His next exertions were directed toward the improvement 
of the American pulpit, as he felt that its priated sermons were 
inferior to those of British divines. Accordingly he undertook the 
monthly pubHcation of sermons by eminent living preachers of 
all denominations, calling the periodical The National Preacher. 
This wholly novel work, published in New York, within less than 
three years attaiaed a circulation of twelve thousand and was 
continued with great usefulness for forty years. Mr. Dickinson 
remained its editor and proprietor for nearly thirteen years and 
personally distributed gratis a number of copies equal to the list of 
subscriptions. Throughout these years he also gave generously 
of his time and substantial income to all worthy objects, acting 



6 Amherst Graduates' Quarterly 

for a while as editor of the American Tract Society, as well as 
preaching constantly on Sundays to some destitute congregation. 

Then followed a voyage to England, partly for the benefit of 
his health, but chiefly to study the educational and benevolent 
institutions of Great Britain. On his return he devoted such time 
as his health would permit for the next six years to securing sub- 
scriptions for The New York Observer. 

In 1844 he entered upon his last and most important enterprise, 
namely, to quote his words, the insertion of "interesting religious 
matter" into secular newspapers, there "to be read by millions 
who would never see a religious journal and many of whom would 
only despise a tract." That this project, in which he met with 
unqualified success, was not only original and revolutionary but 
beset with no little difficulty, is evident from his own further state- 
ment: "Previous to this undertaking, the editors of secular 
papers, generally, scarcely noticed religious movements or seemed 
to feel any interest in them. Much delicacy and prudence were, 
therefore, necessary in any attempt so to change their views and 
tastes that political journals might, without exciting prejudice, be 
made the heralds of sacred truth and religious instruction." 

In furthering this work he was frequently seen, after midnight, 
mounting the stairs to some printing office, on a fourth or fifth 
floor perhaps, to read proof, as proof readers were very apt to make 
serious errors in religious articles. He was also often obliged to 
write nearly all night long to furnish an account of some import- 
ant meeting to several morning papers simultaneously, since no 
editor would publish such items the second day after. 

In the midst of disinterested toil he died at the home of his 
brother. Dr. Baxter Dickinson, during the cholera epidemic in 
New York, August 15, 1849. He was survived by his wife, form- 
erly Miss Laura W. Camp of New Preston, Conn., a lady of 
superior intellectual gifts and culture. Their only child, a daughter, 
died in infancy. Of all the printed tributes to his memory the 
following sentence in The American Messenger of October, 1849, 
will suffice as an apt characterization: "He was a man of great 
singleness of purpose and of unyielding perseverance, fruitful in 
devising and laborious in executing plans of usefulness." And 
then after life's fitful fever he was laid to rest in the "old" cemetery 
in the town of Amherst on Pleasant Street, as the inscription on 



Centennial Biographies 



the tall marble monument '* erected by a few friends" testifies, 
"after a life of eminent Christian enterprise and usefulness." 

REV. BAXTER DICKINSON, D.D. 

Baxter Dickinson was born on April 14, 1795, in the town of 
Amherst, the youngest of the four sons of Azariah and Mary 
Eastman Dickinson, his brothers being named respectively Ransom, 
Austin, and Daniel. His father, a prosperous farmer, had enlisted 
as a minute man in the Revolutionary War upon news of the battle 
of Lexington. 

At the age of sixteen he made profession of faith in Christ 
and, like his elder brother Austin, planned to enter the ministry. 
He was graduated from Yale College with honors in 1817 and 
from Andover Theological Seminary four years later as valedic- 
torian of his class. 

His first charge was at Longmeadow, now a part of Springfield, 
where he was ordained March 5, 1823. It was at this time that 
he rendered material assistance in raising funds for the young 
college at Amherst and from the first fruits of his slender salary 
made a personal contribution thereto, as the records show. 

From 1829 to 1835 he was pastor of the Third Presbyterian 
Church in Newark, N. J., resigning to become professor of sacred 
rhetoric and pastoral theology al Lane Theological Seminary, 
Wahiut Hills, Ohio. From 1839 to 1847 he held the same chair at 
Auburn Seminary, Auburn, N. Y., resigning that post to take an 
important oflfice in the Foreign Evangehcal Society, continuing 
the same work after its merger into the American and Foreign 
Christian Union. He at first took up his residence in New York, 
but after some years removed to Boston. During this period 
he also gave instruction in Andover Seminary. 

From 1859 to 1868 Dr. Dickinson conducted with his four 
daughters a school for young ladies in Lake Forest, 111., with 
notable success. His declining years he passed in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
where he died December 7, 1875, at the age of eighty. He was 
survived by his wife, formerly Miss Martha Bush, youngest 
daughter of Col. Jotham Bush of Boylston, Mass., a lady of great 
personal charm, characterized by Dr. Nelson as "wise, modest, 
motherly, saintly," whose beautiful old age was lengthened to 
nearly ninety-five years. 



8 Amherst Graduates' Quarterly 

As a teacher Dr. Dickinson is said by Dr. Henry Kendall, a 
former student, to have had "the faculty of quickly discerning the 
gifts and mental aptitudes of his pupils, and instead of holding 
constantly before them some high special model, he encouraged 
them to do their best in the way most natural." Among others to 
bear out this witness was Henry Ward Beecher, who personally 
said to members of Dr. Dickinson's family: '* Your father did more 
for me than any teacher I ever had. He made me work!" 

His published writings are chiefly sermons, a number of which 
appeared in The National Preacher. One of them, "The Day of 
Pentecost," was published in England. Another, entitled "Alarm 
to Distillers," was widely circulated as a prize tract and is to 
be found in the volume "Permanent Temperance Documents." 

The most noteworthy production of his pen is "The True 
Doctrines," embodied in the protest of the minority against the 
exscinding acts of the Presbyterian General Assembly of 1837, 
subsequently adopted by the famous Auburn Convention and ever 
since known in Presbyterian Church history as the "Auburn 
Declaration." This statement, pronounced "one of the most 
remarkable documents of the century" by the late Rev. Dr. Henry 
A. Nelson, was accepted thirty-one years later by the two Presby- 
terian Churches, which parted at the very time it was written, as 
the symbol of their doctrinal harmony when they again became 
one. Dr. Nelson adds, to justify his assertion: "The self- 
possession, discrimination, and power of lucid, unambiguous 
expression which it exhibits are marvelous, especially when we 
consider all the circumstances in which it was written, amid the 
intense excitement of the Assembly of 1837." It is pleasant to 
imagine the profound gratification occasioned by this circumstance 
to its venerable author, then seventy years of age. 

Dr. Dickinson was made an honorary alumnus of Amherst by 
the conferring of the degree of Doctor in Divinity upon him in 
1838. The next year he was chosen moderator of the Presby- 
terian General Assembly (New School) . He had a lifelong interest 
in Amherst College, to which he sent his two sons, the Rev. Richard 
Salter Storrs Dickinson, of the class of 1844, and the Rev. William 
C. Dickinson, D.D., valedictorian of the class of 1848 and for a 
year after graduation an instructor in the College. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

nil"! • 



020 773 471 8 



